Poinsettia brooch

This nice small Poinsettia I knitted from a kit that came with a knitting magazine. With red and green yarn from the kit I made the leaves, sewed them together en added some small beads. It will make a nice brooch or an ornament for a bag or a hat. Also great to add some flowery sparkle to Christmas (so that is what I call a head start in terms of Christmas knitting 😂)

Little plants in a lamp

I decided to make a hanging plant pot from the glass shade of a broken lamp. I used a bit of the wonderful Ard-thir yarn from Kate Davies designs (in the Glamaig colourway) to crochet a structure in which the glass shade fits and added a small tassel for fun. Even small recycling projects like this deserve nice yarn in my opinion!

Not a dangling conversation

This piece looks a bit like an abstract, but it isn't to me. It depicts a difficult conversation, when you get the feeling there is nothing you can do in order to understand or be understood, it goes right through you and you shrink back.

I used different kinds of paint on a piece of cloth, pencil and stitching. The edges are ruffled and that is kind of fitting, I think.

 

Stitches in the air

This is my take on a workshop with Jean Draper, a textile artist who makes wonderful sculpture work : a raised piece of textured work, consisting of three different layers of structured meshes.

The layers are separately stitched in frames. When they were merged I added some stitching, fabric and paper.

For now the piece is displayed on the wall, allowing the light to filter through, which creates interesting shadows.

These are the different layers, made with different yarns and cords, still on the frames. I actually also like them this way!

 

Seascape

This piece, which I made in response to a workshop with Shelley Rhodes is perhaps the one I love the most of all my projects.

Different pieces of fabric were sewn into one long strip that I painted with acrylic paint. I added pencil and stitching, and sewed pebbles and sea glass, gathered on a walk, to it.

The piece depicts a beach walk that means a lot to me and I think the combination of colours and materials turned out great.

 

A Christmas garland

I find myself collecting small crocheted and knitted Christmas ornaments, some of them gifts from friends. I decided to make them into a garland, lightweight and easy to transport to wherever I will be celebrating Christmas over the years, taking these friends with me! I hope I will be able to make the garland longer and longer and longer! 

 

Cuff bracelet

This bracelet is made from the cuff of a dress I repurposed.

I have sewn a lot of beads to the edge where I cut it off, which gives the bracelet a festive touch.

Ready for Christmas everyone?

A Pompom snowman

I used the best part of a skein of soft and fluffy organic yarn (Pure,100 % wool, Creative Collection by Veritas - 50g/100m) to make this pompom snowman. I gave him a sweet colourful nightcap and his nose is made from a tiny scrap of fabric. Who doesn't love a cute snowman?

Kitchen Story

This collage piece is a stitched story about the kitchen in my childhood home. It took rather longer to plan than usual, because I first made a mind map to set free my thoughts and associations.

The technique of mind mapping is something I learned from Ali Ferguson. I found it to be very useful and insightful. 

Starting from this mind map, I selected meaningful materials, words and motifs. 

For the materials, I chose a piece of an actual cushion cover from that time, some jeans fabric (we wore jeans all the time back then), fabric scraps from a pair of slippers I had, some pieces of kitchen textiles and random fabrics that remind me of the atmosphere of this eighties kitchen.

As the motif I picked a whisk, which my mum often used, among many other things for making mayonnaise. This was a job that required a lot of attention and we often chatted as I watched her.

By stitching together the words and this image I’ve tried to capture a cherished memory of peaceful, secure and happy times.

More of not stitching on fabric

I loved last week’s workshop so much that I went on stitching on all kinds of different things, like paper and orange peel and I also made some collages.

Here I used a chestnut leaf, after I made a print of the leaf on a piece of cloth. I sewed the leaf to the cloth and added some more stitching :

This is a fun collage of paper, stitching, paint, different leaves, dried physalis husks, a poppy seed pod and a piece of an old shirt. I’ll use the button holes to attatch the piece to a branch : that way I will be able to hang it on the wall.

I did some stitching on part of an envelope:

And here is the most fun one, stitching on dried orange peel : “We all have lots of crazy layers”! Well, don’t we? (Hanging from a thread, it spins nicely 😊)